News & Events

Press Release

VIVA VERDI SERIES AT BARD COLLEGE PRESENTS A LECTURE BY VERDI BIOGRAPHER
MARY JANE PHILLIPS-MATZ ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14

ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.?The Viva Verdi Series at Bard presents Verdi biographer Mary Jane Phillips-Matz, who will speak at the college on Wednesday, November 14, at 7:30 p.m. The lecture, free and open to the public, will be held in Room 102 of the Olin Humanities Building. A two-year program, the Viva Verdi series celebrates Giuseppe Verdi's centenary and the 140th anniversary of the founding of the Italian state and is sponsored by the Italian Studies Program at Bard.

Phillips-Matz is the author of the book Verdi: A Biography, which "succeeds in making Verdi more elaborately mysterious than he ever seemed before, while making his work seem all the more miraculous," according to Edward Rothstein in the New York Times Book Review. The book was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Award in London and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award in New York. Phillips-Matz's other biographies include The Many Lives of Otto Kahn; Rosa Ponselle: American Diva; and Leonard Warren, American Baritone. Her new book, Puccini: A Biography will be published next year.

Her essay, "Verdi a Thematic Life," will appear in the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Verdi. Phillips-Matz has also had work included in other anthologies, including The Puccini Companion and The Verdi Companion. She contributes articles to many publications, among them Opera News, The Metropolitan Opera Season Book, Opera Quarterly, BBC Music Magazine, and the publications of the Royal Opera of Covent Garden in London, as well as those of other American and European opera companies.

Phillips-Matz is the cofounder and a member of the executive board of the American Institute for Verdi Studies at New York University. She has taught at St. Mary's College of Notre Dame University, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, and the University of Venice in Italy. She received a B.A. degree from Smith College and an M.A. degree from Columbia University. Phillips-Matz holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree for her Verdi studies.

For further information about the lecture and the Viva Verdi series, call 845-758-6822, e-mail wilson@bard.edu, or visit the website inside.bard.edu/viva_verdi/.